unexpected mid-atlantic

Beholding the Fort Visitors to Fort State Park travel back to 1864 and the Civil War.

THE UNION SOLDIERS HAVE JUST FIRED THEIR MUSKETS, and the sulfurous smell of gun smoke hangs in the air. I can hear the sharp banging of the blacksmith’s tools from inside his shop as I ascend the spiral staircase two flights to the top of the fort for a glimpse of the mustard-colored POW barracks on the other side of a filled with muddy water. When the ferry Delafort had left Delaware City, Delaware, the year was 2017. But after journeying just a half-mile across the , we passengers had arrived 153 years in the past, in the summer of 1864, a time when was home to about 8,000 Confederate prisoners of war, in addition to some 300 Union infantry who guarded them and another 800 artillery who lived inside the small, pentagon-shaped granite-and-brick-fortress known as . Hundreds of civilians also lived on Pea Patch Island, all working to support the fort and its WHAT: Fort Delaware day-to-day functioning. There’s even record of a hotel State Park and cookhouse here during the war, staffed by a WHERE: Ferry ticket office, Mrs. Patterson. 45 Clinton Street, This iteration of Fort Delaware (a short-lived earlier Delaware City, Delaware fort burned down in 1831) opened in 1859 as an WHEN: Through September 4, artillery post, and it saw use as recently as World War Wednesdays through Fridays, II, when a gun battery was manned for a few weeks PARKS STATE ABEL/DELAWARE APRIL BY PHOTO 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; after Pearl . Even then, the fort was obsolete, Saturdays, Sundays and pants instead of long dresses. Hats off, they are free holidays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; and it was abandoned in 1944. By the early 1960s, the after September 4, Saturdays island and its fort had opened regularly to visitors as to answer questions, such as my inquiry: “Are the and Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 Fort . plates, tools and uniforms on display real or replicas?” p.m. through September 30. Back in the 19th century, however, the fort was They are replicas, but no less interesting to the many Ticket office opens 30 minutes in a prime location just 40 miles downriver from children who come here with scout troops, summer before the first ferry leaves , , able to protect that city camps and their families. and closes 30 minutes after as well as Wilmington, Delaware, from invasion. Fort Tours of the fort are self-guided, with interpreters the last ferry returns. Evening Delaware’s heyday had been during the four years of ready to answer questions stationed in various parts paranormal adventures are the Civil War, when it was among the largest of the of the fort—staffing the ordnance room, baking in the held in October; see the website or call the park office Union’s 14 prisoner-of-war camps. At its overcrowded officers’ kitchen, washing clothing in a tub or guarding for information. The fort is height—right after the in the the prison barracks. Be sure to check The Pea Patch then closed to tours until summer of 1863—it held as many as 12,500 POWs, 2 Gazette, available at the ferry office, for a schedule reopening the following year or more to a bunk in 52 spartan wooden barracks. of the day’s activities, which might include a guided on the last weekend of April. Today, it’s hard to imagine that many people living history tour as well as period-appropriate kids’ HOW MUCH: Adults $12, inhabiting this tiny island, but the costumed historical games, a demonstration of the loading and firing of military and those age 62 and interpreters do their best to convey what life was the 32-pound , and marching on the parade up $11, children age 2–12 $7, like here during the Civil War. Interpreters dressed grounds—audience participation encouraged. free under age 2. as military, for example, employ a “hats on/hats off” Special POW weekends July 8–9 and August 12–13 FOR MORE INFORMATION: rule for how they speak. If their hats are on, they will feature up to 50 costumed reenactors joining the 302/834-7941 or speak as if they were living in the midst of the Civil usual staff of 20 interpreters, allowing for additional destateparks.com/park/ War, even expressing confusion at “all these women special programs and reenactments. fort-delaware/index.asp dressed like men”—that is, the female visitors wearing —Theresa Gawlas Medoff